The combination of a thriving economy, a wealthy local catchment area and long-term international appeal also indicates that the future of Chicago property could be bright. "Chicago has one of the strongest and most resilient economies in the US and offers properties at incredible value," says Matt Garrison, Managing Director of Garrison Group. "This, combined with the extremely favourable exchange rate, makes the city a shrewd investment choice, and we are seeing significant growth in interest from UK investors."

Other experts agree that international interest in Chicago property has grown exponentially in recent months. "The city sells itself," says Stefano Farsura, president of American Invsco International. "We have great projects to sell, and interest from abroad is overwhelming." Chicago has, in fact, been tipped to become the USA's favourite city for property investors, as they look to capitalise on the strength of the pound against the dollar and excellent return on investments. With the average value of a property in Chicago costing a third of the price of a similar property in New York, luxury developers RDM Development have predicted that the city will overtake the east cost competition in popularity. The company also estimates that property prices in Chicago will increase by around 25 per cent over the next three years.

In addition to healthy capital growth, investors should benefit from fairly strong rental yields, which could realistically prove to be around an average of 8 per cent annually. This rental potential will be aided by a growing population of almost 10 million in the metropolitan area and over 44 million people visiting the city every year. The other factor contributing to increased property demand is Chicago's bid to host the Olympics in 2016 – earlier this month it was names as one of four possible host cities, along with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. The city was also recently ranked the fourth most important business centre in the world by the Mastercard Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, and was tenth on the UBS list of the world's richest cities. But, according to one of the city's real estate agents, the real appeal of Chicago is the fantastic lifestyle that the city offers. "Not until I visited Chicago did I realise what was missing from other cities," says Roberto Cavanzo of Global Brokers, who recently transferred his real estate operations to the Windy City. "New York is business, LA is showbiz – but Chicago offers something special."

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Article published July 2008